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THE 



Natural Resources of New Hampshire. 



AN ADDRESS 



DELIVBJtHD AT THK 



Annual Field Meeting 



New Hampshire Board of Agriculture 



Boar's Head, Hampton, August 27. 1891 



JOSEPH B. WALKER. 



CONCORD. N. II. : 
Ira C. Evans, Printer. 13 and 15 Capitol Street. 

189:.'. 



T II E 



Natural Resources of New Hampshire. 



AN ADDRESS 



I 'I I l> ERKD AT TIIK 



Annual Field Meeting 



New Hampshire Board of Agriculture 



11KI.K AT 



Boar's Head, Hampton, August 27. [891. 



J< )SE PH 1 I. WALKER. 



CONCORD, \. II. . 

Ik a C. Evans, Printer, [3 and 15 Capitoi Street. 

1892. 



. 



^ 



The Natural Resources of New Hampshire, 



BY HON. |. B. WALKER 



Some years ago, in the days of our genial Adams, this 
Board's first secretary, I was engaged by him to deliver at 

one of its institutes an address upon the subject of Forestry. 
When he reported this tact to his chief, the' present chair- 
man, the latter remarked with some surprise, >v Forestry, for- 
estry, nobody cares anything about forestry." To say that 
this remark put my sweet temper into a state of violent ebulli- 
tion, is to state the fact in the mildest possible terms. At 
length, however, when the harmless boiling had subsided, I 
became convinced that Uncle Moses was righl ; that, for once 
in my entire life, I had got ahead of my time, and that while 
I was in one respect like John the Baptist, a voice crying in 
the wilderness, I was in another, entirely unlike the great 
forerunner, for he had followers and I hadn't. 

But while Mr. Humphrey's remark was true twenty years 
ago, it is not so to-da\ ; a fact which affords gratifying and 
important evidence of the growth of our agricultural intelli- 
gence. 

It" New Hampshire were to-day, for the first time, put into 
our possession, as was Eden into the control of Adam, "to 
dress and keep it," our first inquiry, doubtless, would he, 
" what shall we do with it ? " To answer as best 1 may this 
great fundamental question, so important to all our interest-, 
1 am in your presence to-day. 

A survev of our State -hows that we have a territory 
ncarh two hundred miles long, with a greatest breadth of 



about one hundred ; embracing an area of about six million 
(6,010,880) acres of diversified surface, lying at elevations 
which vary all the way from the sea level to an altitude of 
nearly a mile and a quarter above it, consisting of multitudi- 
nous water areas, amounting, according to one official author- 
itv, to a million acres, but which I venture to place at one 
half that number; of much good arable land, and of far more 
of a rougher kind, which has never yet tolerated culture, and 
never will. 

This is our inheritance, not a great, but a very respectable 
one. Are we equal to its full development? What shall we do 
with it? Yes, what shall we do with it? This question is not a 
new one, first asked in our day. It was propounded by John 
Mason, the first proprietor of New Hampshire, more than 
two hundred and fifty years ago. It has been asked over and 
over again, by the nine or ten succeeding generations which 
have occupied it, and been variously answered by each in its 
time. It has come down to us and we cannot evade it. To 
what uses can we most profitably apply these six millions of 
acres of which we are now the guardians. This is the great 
question of to-day. 

Some of the earliest settlers of the State said, "establish 
here the fur trade," and it was done; but the catching of 
beavers, and muskrats, and skunks, and woodchucks, proved 
a meagre business and was discontinued, for the want, possi- 
bly, of a Legislature to attract by suitable bounties game from 
outside our lines. 

Others of the earliest inhabitants, of ardent thirst, perhaps, 
suggested the making of vineyards, and vines were planted 
on the sunny banks of the Newitchewannock. But this busi- 
ness proved unprofitable. Modern experience indicates that 
had they established breweries instead, their ventures might 
have proved more remunerative. But they probably would 
have been premature, for there were not then in all New Eng- 
land parched throats enough to swallow a thousand barrels a 
day. 

Mining was proposed, and search was made for precious 



and useful ores; but in vain. These have never yet been 
found in plentifulness sufficient to return a new dollar for an 
old one. The history of mining in this State from i'>m, to 
this year of our Lord, 1891, has been one of uniform failure, 
and at times of sad personal disaster to those who have pur- 
sued it. 

Others said, look at these broad forests which everywhere 
cover the ground ; and saw mills were erected upon the Pis- 
qua and its tributaries. The manufacture of building 
timber and plank, pipe Staves and masts, was commenced and 
prosecuted with vigor. Ships also were built and in time the 
lumber interest became the leading business in many localities. 
Resulting from this came a considerable exporl trade of for- 
es! products to West Indies, Southern Europe, and to our 
mother country. 

But when in time, the importation oi foreign corn tor the 
support of the people proved too costly, and its transportation 
for grinding, to and from the wind-mill at Boston, too oner- 
ous, local agriculture was suggested. From that day, down 
almost to the present, New Hampshire lias been regarded as 
an agricultural State. 

Such were tin- leading answers given by our progenitors 
to this important question. " What shall we do with our 
domain?" [ again put it to you to-day. Let us summon into 
activity our broadest wisdom and answer it as best we can. 

It" our friend, Colonel Wean-, is present to-day, as he 
usually is at these gatherings in his neighborhood, he will he 
likely to say, "agriculture has been our chief support for two 
centuries. Improve its methods, enlarge its operations and 
let it remain such." But nature has restricted our farming 
to less than one half of our territory, we have never plowed 
more than one sixth of it. we have never pastured more than 
one quarter of it and we never can, to any profit. Our agri- 
cultural operations cannot be much extended beyond their 
present limit of some two millions and a quarter of acres. To 
attempt it would be to contend with nature, in an effort sine- to 
prove as vain as it would be foolish. What, therefore, shall 
we do with our remaining three millions of acres? 



6 



A partial answer to that question is sure to be, utilize our 
ubiquitous water power and establish manufacturing industries 
in all sections of the State, from Indian Stream to the mouth 
of the Piscataqua. And in this proposition there is truly 
much wisdom. While our manufacturing interests are already 
of great importance, we have but very partially utilized the 
natural powers offered by the streams to be found in every 
town in the State. 

Some twenty years ago, following the example of her sister 
State of Maine, New Hampshire made a slight effort to ascer- 
tain the locations and amounts of her water powers. A com- 
mission was appointed by the governor and council, who made 
a cursory examination of the subject, and a preliminary report, 
in 1S70, which embodied many important facts. 

We learn from this that nearly fifteen hundred streams of 
varying volumes have been laid down upon our state and 
county maps, and that, in answer to a circular sent to the 
towns by the commissioners, asking for the number of water 
powers in each, returns were received from ninety-one of the 
two hundred and thirty-eight, or thereabout. These were as 
follows : 



21 towns in Rockingham county returned 



48 powers. 
30 " 
36 - 
20 " 

94 kt 
138 - 

i59 " 

36 » 

132 " 

58 " 

91 751 

The officers of many of these towns accompanied their 
returns with the remark that they were imperfect, and that 
they had made but partial lists of the water powers in their 



6 


1 1 


Strafford 


. c 


5 


1 t 


Belknap 


k 1 


4 


1 1 


Carroll 


u 


9 


t . 


Merrimack 


1 1 


1 2 


i i 


Hillsborough 


U 


1 2 


. 1 


Grafton 


" 


4 


i i 


Sullivan 


1 1 


12 


1 1 


Cheshire 


1. i 


6 


t. 


Coos 


i i 



several towns. Yet, these averaged eight and a quarter 
powers to a town. Upon this basis, New Hampshire has 
nearly two thousand waterpowers (1,963), a number doubt- 
less much below the actual one. 

Those on many of our streams have ne\ er been utilized at all. 
Indeed, thus far, New Hampshire has availed herself in but 
a small degree of this vast natural force which has been so 
generousl) placed at her disposal. The full utilization of it 
would treble our population, more than treble our wealth, and 
increase proportionately our industrial and political impor- 
tance. And yet, we had invested in manufactories in 1880, 
over fifty millions of dollars ($51,112,263) which yielded an 
annual product of nearl) seventy-five millions ($73,978,028) ; 
four or five times that of our farming. Manifestly, we arc- 
destined hereafter to become more of a manufacturing than of 
an agricultural people, if, indeed, we are not already such. 

But when we shall have utilized all the water power in the 
State, and surrounded their sides with prosperous villages, 
there will still remain some three millions of acres a strong 
half of our area — waiting to In- impro\ ed. What shall w e do 
with these, or rather what can he done with them to render 
them the most productive: The Almighty has made them for 
something, hut lor what: This is o^e half of the whole greal 
question which asks an answer just here and now, with the 
deep resounding sea on one side of us, the plains and mount- 
ains ..n the other, and the blue vault of heaven bending over us. 

[n my own humble opinion there is hut one sensible answer to 
this inquiry. The rugged sides of many of our mountain-- ami 
hills, scattered everywhere over the State, spurn the plough 
and will yield neither grass, roots, nor grain. Lett to themselves 
however, they will grow wood and timber perpetually, 
the crop which nature assigned to them when the State 
emerged from the universal flood which had covered it lor a 
period of whose duration we have no knowledge. Thai is tin- 
crop and the only one which they have borne since man has 
known them. It is the only one which they are willing to bear. 
Is it net as well t<> allow them to do a- they will and govern 
them in the line of their aptitudes: 



Early one morning, some years ago, as the late Mr. Thomas 
B. Leighton sat upon the piazza of his Appledore House, just 
across this bay at the Shoals, and had taken from his mouth 
the long horn, with which by gentle tootings, oft repeated, he 
was wont to arouse his guests, your speaker said to him, 
" what do you do when they won't wake up?" " I accept the 
inevitable and let them do as they will." We may wisely, I 
think, adopt this policy in our treatment of this large half of 
our domain. For we cannot raise grapes on thorn trees, or 
figs on thistles, or maize on the shaggy sides of Mount 
Washington, which will produce trees in abundance and for- 
ever. 

Now, in case we shall follow the leadings of nature, what 
may we reasonably expect as the annual return of these rough 
acres? Each of these three millions ought to produce five 
thousand feet of timber every forty-five years, amounting to 
fifteen thousand millions of square feet, worth in the woods, 
at five dollars per thousand, seventy-five millions of dollars, or 
one and two thirds millions ($1,666,666) per year, aside from 
the wood of which no mention has been made. We regard this 
estimate a reasonable one, and its realization easily possible. 

But look a little farther. When this lumber has reached 
its ultimate condition by manufacture, its value will have been 
increased all the way from two or three to a dozen times its 
original amount, from four or five to ten or fifteen millions of 
dollars, according to the uses to which it may have been put. 

This increase we are now giving very largely to manufact- 
urers outside our lines, by exporting most of our lumber in the 
log or in partially manufactured forms, and thereby reserving 
to ourselves but a small fraction of its final value. In 
other words, we are selling raw material, to which foreigners 
apply their labor and make fortunes, which we may and ought 
to secure to ourselves. Communities grow rich but slowly, if 
at all, by the exportation of their raw products. Our Southern 
States are learning this lesson very fast, and it will enure to our 
profit, if we also hasten to do likewise. 

Thus far, our woods have yielded us but a small portion of 



the wealth which they would have done had their capacities 
been developed as they might have been. Properly managed, 
where the) are now affording occupation to do/ens of people 
and supporting inconsiderable hamlets, they would give 
employment to hundreds, often to thousands, and convert 
these hamlets into populous villages and thriving towns. 

No -real interest in New Hampshire has been so recklessly 
administered as has that of very many of our forests. The 
private interests of proprietors only, or rather what the\ 
deemed to be such, have been consulted. Formerly, and to 
some extent now, in the northern part of the State, no trees 
below certain minimum sizes were or are cut. Under this 
system, no immature timber is removed, the -round is shaded 
and its moisture preserved. As a consequence, the young 
growth is for the most part saved. Fires art- comparativel) 
few and their ravages not frequently extensive. 

But when, at dry seasons, tires have started upon lands 
from which the entire growth has been removed, their attest 
has been well nigh impossible, and every thing upon them, 
living and dead, has been destroyed. In some cases, the soil 
itself even has been consumed, and only one sad scene of 
awful desolation has been left to tell the story of mismanage- 
ment and neglect. 

Last season, the speaker followed up a valley of the \\ bite 
Mountains, some seven or eight miles, which had been 
thus made frightful. The fire-bleached ledges which Hanked 
its entrance instantly' suggested the horrible inscription which 
Dante, in his " Inferno," has placed above the entrance arch 
of hell, — 

•• All hope abandon, ye who enter here." 

In this devoted valley, some five years ago, from crest line 
to crest line of the mountain ranges which wall it in, raged 
for days devouring flames which consumed every living object 
upon its surface, save here and there a few trees which tin- 
wet -found protected, and the limpid stream which detied 
their power. — the whole scene there unfolded to view afford- 



10 

ing a marked example of the effects of drought, denudation, 
and careless firing combined. 

As one wanders through that valley, gazing up and down 
its desolated sides, and pauses here and there to look upon 
the pure waters of the stream which divides it, he may realize 
as he has never done before, the sharp contrast of the black- 
ened horrors of the eternal pit with the "river of water of 
life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and 
the Lamb." 

But forest fires and denudation do not affect injuriously the 
forest alone. Their disastrous effects are felt by all our other 
great industrial interests as well, for these are all more or less 
inter-dependent upon one another. This remark applies par- 
ticularly to the agricultural and manufacturing industries of 
the State. Whatever tends to diminish the water supply or 
to render it variable and uncertain, is detrimental to these, to 
a marked degree. 

It is a mistake to regard the lakes and ponds of New Hamp- 
shire as her great reservoirs. These are her forests. The 
former are simply catch-basins which hold the stores which 
the latter have received from the clouds and yield as wanted 
under the gentle but constant pressure of gravity. Fires con- 
sume the covering of leaves and mosses which give them their 
retaining power, and convert their surfaces to blank areas of 
rock and sand, down which the rains flow as readily as 
showers down a roof. 

Denudation causes them to freeze early in autumn. As a 
consequence, the entire precipitation of winter rests upon an 
impervious bed, exposed to evaporation and removal by sun 
and wind, whereby much of it is lost. Whatever of it 
remains until spring, melts before the frost leaves the ground, 
and is converted into torrents which plow the plains with 
destructive violence, cover fertile fields with barren debris 
and in headlong haste cause devastation wherever they go. 

There is another great interest, not yet mentioned and of a 
comparatively recent date, which is particularly sensitive to 
a maladministration of our forests. I refer to the summer 



11 

visiting interest. This is omnipresent throughout the State. 
We all of us know more or less about it. but, in the absence 
of exacl statistics, have a vague and inexact idea <>t its magni- 
tude; yet, our personal observations are sufficienl to indicate 
its greal importance and thai it> future development bids fair 
to materially increase the value of our real estate, to awaken 
from their letharg) scores of our now too quiet villages, to 
improve our social condition, to render more attractive our 
homes, and afford us local markets where ultimate prices may 
be realized for the surplus products of our farms and gardens. 
Mr. ]olm Lindsey, of Lancaster, remarked some years ago 
that he remembered when the combined annual receipts of all 
the White Mountain houses were but twelve thousand dol- 
lars ($! 2,000). 

Mr. Edward Hungarford, in the present August number of 
the " Century," tells us that the White Mountain hotels and 
boarding-houses now have accommodations for eight thou- 
sand persons, and that Bethlehem alone can take care of three 
thousand. According to his estimate, no less than three hun- 
dred and twenty thousand (320,040) persons visit this part of 
the State every year. But reduce his estimate one third, cut 
the number down to two hundred thousand ( .200,000), and 
assign to each an expenditure of five dollars while there (and 
who can run the gauntlet between " Boots" and the hell boy 
on one side, and the gentlemanl} clerk and the invisible pro- 
prietor on the other, tor a less sum:), and this number will 
he found to have left behind no less a sum than one million 
dollars, besides the amounts paid to railroads and stages tor 
transportation. 

Tlie industrious secretan ot" this Board of Agriculture tells 
us that, in response to his circulars sent out in [889, to the 
hotel and boarding-house keepers in New Hampshire, asking 
the several amounts ot" their gross receipts tor that \ ear. he 
received returns aggregating live millions of dollars, five times 
as much as the value of one ot" the ordinary annual corn crops 
of the State. 

These figures abundantly show that New Hampshire pos- 

LofC. 



12 

sesses strong attractions of some kind, which bring within its 
borders every summer the throngs of men, women, and chil- 
dren that appear among ns. What are the attractions? 
They are not those of Mecca or Lonrdes to which multitudes 
go as pilgrims impelled by religious motives. They are not 
those of New York or Leadville, nor those of the prairies and 
the plains, whither men and women go to make money, for 
visitors do not come here to worship, but to have a good time. 
They do not come to make money, but rather, to spend it. 
They are an amiable, well-behaving crowd, with shekels in 
their pockets which they are willing to part with for a fair 
consideration. Their numbers increase rather than diminish, 
and thev penetrate every town and almost every school dis- 
trict in the State. What attracts them ? 

Among the attractions influencing this great throng are : 
i. Pure Air. When, in July and August, a few weeks of 
rest and recreation are offered to men and women who spend 
eleven months of the year in close streets and furnace-heated 
apartments, they naturally seek God's open country and the 
fresh air of the hills and mountains, upon whose sides many of 
them first saw the light. However perfect the ventilation 
which art, guided by science, has introduced to the crowded 
stores and offices and work shops of our large towns, their 
atmosphere can never equal that of the highlands of the open 
country, or of the surf beaten shore where the pulse-beat of the 
wide ocean invigorates the weakened pulse-beat of man. In 
these sultry months, New Hampshire offers to all who pine 
for freshness and space, invigorating breezes brought upon our 
coast across the arctic current, or strengthening ozone wafted 
over all our inland country from the great storehouses of the 
frost king in the far north-west. 

2. Pure Water. Next to pure air, pure water is essential 
to the physical welfare of man. When large numbers of peo- 
ple settle upon limited areas, the obtaining of this is a matter 
of no small difficulty. They are obliged, consequently, as the 
best to be had, to use waters of inferior quality. But this 
necessity does not destroy their relish for those, clear 



13 

as crystal, which our mountains distill from the clouds and 
transmit everywhere through rock-bedded channels tor the free 
use of all who care for them. It rather increases it. 

lie who has been obliged to drink the indifferent waters of 
the great cities will appreciate the worth of our mountain 
streams. He who has journeyed from Jersey to Florida, over 
the great sand belt which lines the Atlantic coast, and noticed 
the turbid character of the streams which cut through it to the 
sea, will understand the surpassing excellence of the white 
waters of granitic regions, lie who has attempted in vain to 
allay his thirst with the Hat, tasteless waters of the prairies, 
knows how to value those of our Xew Hampshire springs. 
Next to the living waters of eternal life, springing in the regen- 
erated heart of man, are the crystal streams of our hills and 
mountains. 

3. The Ace ssibility of our Position is a Third Attrac- 
tion. The great Creator of all things has seen lit to place the 
\\ lute Mountains and their ten thousand surrounding hills 
within the hounds of Xew I Iampshire. That of Mount Wash- 
ington is the highest mountain summit on the east side of this 
continent, north of North Carolina. In July and August, ten 
millions of people may reach it between the sunrise and the 
sunset of a single day. Luxurious railway trains from all 
directions converge to it, as did the great highways of" the 
C 'a-^ars to imperial Rome. 

4. / :- oj the Fatherland. Thousands of choice men 
and women during the last seventy-five years have gone from 
the home of their nativity to seek fortunes abroad. Large 
numbers of them of the first or second generation, attracted to 
their fatherland by an interest which can be better felt than 
expressed, come hack from time to time to visit kindred and 
scenes hallowed hv the associations of other davs. Not a tew, 
with the means which enterprise has gained for them, are 
building summer homes here and there, all over the State. 

The love of country life is a characteristic of our race, which, 
if circumstances allow, is sure to manifest itself in the acquisi- 
tion and improvement of landed estates. There is no property 



14 

so precious to a man who has English blood in his veins as a 
piece of God's fair earth, extending from the point where 
gravity centers to the realms of illimitable space. 

5. Our Sec )/ cry. But the strongest attraction of any, 
probably, is that afforded by our scenery. I spent a winter 
some years ago upon the flat lands about the Gulf of Mexico, 
and became familiar with the floating bogs of its northern 
shore, with their gradual elevation to marshes, and still higher 
sand plains farther inland. They proved exceedingly monot- 
onous and uninteresting. And when, at length, I started 
homeward upon the great Mississippi and watched, league 
after league, from the steamer's deck the rich bottoms through 
which it flows, that depression of spirit which monotony and 
ennui engender became painful. But when, at length, the 
little bluff upon which Natches stands came into view, exhil- 
aration succeeded, for it seemed a gate post of Paradise. 
Indeed, there is very little to interest in the vast sedimentary 
plains which stretch, in some sections of our country, in all 
directions to the horizon, reminding one only of former 
submergence and of pre-historic monsters which the geol- 
ogist only cares for. 

But when the traveler rises to higher regions, where omnip- 
otent Power has bent the pliable strata of the earth's crest 
into mountain and valleys, and clothed their sides with forests 
of perpetual green, an interest is awakened which never flags. 

What the Alps and their outlying foot hills are to Switzer- 
land, the White Mountains and their notches are to New 
Hampshire. Its mountains and valleys have made that litde 
country of central Europe the sanitarium of the continent. If 
we improve, as we may, our grand opportunities, similar 
attractions will make our gallant State an important health 
resort forever. 

The sum of wdiat I have thus imperfectly said is this: 

We have in our little State of New Hampshire a respectable 
heritage, affording some half a dozen leading resources, which 
are valuable, just in proportion to the wisdom and energv 
with which thev are developed. 



15 

i. We have an agriculture whose products may be doubled 
or trebled, it' the farmer will but rise to the level of his oppor- 
tunities. 

_* . We have water power, of which only ;i tithe or less has 
been utilized, sufficient to give us high rank as a manufact- 
uring State, it' it he utilized as it ma\ he. 

^. We have forests covering half our area, which will yield 
us annually ami perpetually for the simple taking, crops of 
wood and timber, whose manufacture may give profitable 
employment to large numbers and increase greatly the popu- 
lation of the State. 

.|. We have scenery unsurpassed in many respects by that 
of any other State, which in consequence of its attractive 
power has just as much a cash value as the soil of our fields 
or the granite in our quarries. It any one doubt this let him 
ii\ to buy the summit of Mt. Washington or the old man of 
the mountain in Franconia Notch. 

These and other resources to which I cannot now allude, 
thus far hut partially developed, have hitherto given us a fru- 
gal living. Utilized as they may he, they will make us rich. 

In a word. I can best illustratemy idea of our present situa- 
tion as owners of this heritage h\ quoting the remark of a 
canny old Scotchman who once called upon me to see my 
farm. As we rode over it he complimented the different sec- 
tions and I became so inflated with sweet satisfaction as to 
endanger the button-holes of my jacket. But his parting 
words produced a sudden collapse and removed the strain. 
These I have never forgotten. Said he: "You have a 
verv good farm, Mr. Walker, hut you don't half earn it on." 



1900 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



003 192 359 1 




.Ife/W 



^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

Milium! 



003 192 359 1 



u-vi* /■» 



